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5 Things To Know Before Refinishing Old Hardwood Floors
One of the earliest DIY renovations we tackled at the #totsreno Farmhouse was refinishing old hardwood floors.
Refinishing hardwood floors are a grueling task and is not a project you want to take on casually.
The floors are almost 100 years old and quite a challenge to restore.
Think of all the “living” that went on in this house over the last 100 years to create all the wear marks eventually making the previous owner paint the floors.
Here are the tips and tricks I learned while restoring old hardwood floors for the first time.
Creating Beautiful Hardwood Floors is a Lot of Work
Work, a lot of work.
It’s important to learn how to how to re-stain a hardwood floor from a professional.
I went into the project thinking we were going to have the entire house (4 bedrooms, hallway, huge living/dining space, additional room and kitchen) done in 3 days.
Granted I thought it was going to be three LONG days but three days nonetheless.
Nope.
I was wrong.
So very, very wrong.
I think it took two of us 6 LONG days with full-time daycare to get it done (minus the living room and kitchen).
There is a reason why people hire professionals when refinishing wood floors.
Professionals will cost $1,000 to $1,280 per 300 sq. ft. room or $3.33 to $4.26 per square feet.
There a number of different factors affecting the total cost of a project and they include:
- Number of rooms, hallways and stairs and total square footage
- Flooring e.g. vinyl or old carpet to be removed and discarded
- Condition of the entire floor after coating or other flooring material is removed
- Recoating verses refinishing
- Number of old finish coats or finishes required
- Does the floor have any water damage
Know what Type of Sealer or Paint is on Your Floors
The house was a foreclosure and as such, it was not well maintained by the previous home owners. Each room had its own unique challenges.
The living and dining space had bare wood with no finish left and the office had a thick layer of yellow paint.
The worst room was my daughter’s which had carpet glue UNDER a layer of thick brown paint.
Because of the differences in how the solid hardwood floors were treated we had to customize our sanding to fit.
For example, normally when you sand floors you start with 60 grit sandpaper and end with 120 grit.
To remove the carpet glue and paint we had to go with a “tear your flesh off” grit of around 20.
While we did this room we asked ourselves “why we were refinishing these old hardwood floors”?
This was the worst room and we learned a lot and some of these options may be available to you (they were not for us).
Screening Method to Remove the Finish
This option is only available if your wood floor has NOT been stained or damaged with deep scratches or if you HAVE a non-waxed polyurethane finish on the wood floor.
Screens are sanding disks that have a clog resistant design. They are designed to remove the finish without cutting the wood.
Some people call this buffing and is minimally invasive in terms of work, dust, mess and cost. Cost of labor ranges from $1 – $2 per sq. ft.
Sanding Method to Remove the Finish, Stain and Damage
The sanding method is required when the existing wood stain finish is badly worn, there is a wax coating on the polyurethane finish and the wood has been stained and damaged.
If you choose to do this step yourself (DIY) be aware that this process has the greatest risk of going terribly wrong.
It’s important to learn how to refinish wooden floors from professionals to ensure your project takes less time..
When the process is done correctly only the finish, stain and marks on the floor are removed.
There are hidden costs and risks when sanding a wood floor; if the floor has been sanding previously it might be too thin to sand again – these are common problems.
Some hardwood flooring is not solid and even sanding once does not work.
Other potential risks include; leaving inconsistent marks or even gouging the wood grain if the sander is left in one place too long (it only takes a few seconds).
Next there is a considerable list of safety equipment and tools required to do even the smallest refinishing old hardwood floors job.
Keep in mind the same equipment is required for one 10’x 10′ room or five 10’x 10′ rooms.
Price out the Materials, Tools and Equipment
Safety Gear
- Safety Glasses or Goggles (preferred) $6 ea
- Dust Masks or Respirator to filter dust particles $50 ea
- Knee Pads $12 per pair
- Work Gloves $15 per pair
- Safety Shoes or Boots – starts at $90 per pair
Hand Tools
- Hand Scraper $35 ea
- Nail Set $10 ea
- Claw Hammer $25 ea
Rental Equipment
- Floor Edger $37 per day
- Drum Sander $60 per day (not random orbital sanders because they cross the grain)
- Belt Sander for tight spots $60 per day
- Sandpaper for both Sanders $60 lot (depends on size of project)
Cleanup Tools and Materials
- Shop Vacuum $70 to $170 (purchase)
- Trash Bags $20 for 32 bags
- Mop $12
- Rags 4lb Box – $20
Finish Applicators and Materials
- Paintbrush $1 to $5 ea
- Paint Roller Cage Frame $9 ea.
- Paint Rollers $10 set of 3
- Extension Pole $15 ea
- Stain $27 to $40 a Gallon (coverage per Gallon varies depending on desired color)
- Polyurethane clear varnish (water based) One gallon covers 200 sq. ft. $165
We recommend you get prices from a professional at restoring hardwood floors and compare your cost for materials, tools and rental equipment (and your time).
Tip – You need to Stir the Poly between each use
This may seem like a no-brainer but I made this mistake.
We went with flat sheen clear polyurethane to seal the floors.
I now know polyurethane is shiny, they add a special powder to reduce the sheen.
This sediment settles to the bottom so you must stir the flat poly very well when you use it.
I did not stir between coats on the second floor so some of the bedrooms looks like they have wet floor splotches on them.
After working so hard on the floors this was not the look I was going for.
I now need to hand sand and re-poly these spots – redoing hardwood floors sucks.
Know when Enough is Enough
We are not professional floor sanders.
At some point, we needed to call a spade a spade and leave well enough alone.
When dealing with almost century old floors the boards we uneven and there were spaces we just could not sand the paint off of (without potentially ruining them).
I actually really like the results of restoring old hardwood floors – our floors look great.
They have a farmhouse vibe to them with the leftover paint in the crevices that give it “character”.
Sometimes these things work out for the best.
So this is how refinishing old hardwood floors can work out for you too.
Refinishing Old Hardwood Floors is not Possible in all Renovations
We also did not refinish the kitchen and additional room floors like we intended.
Instead, we covered them with laminate.
Why?
This solid hardwood floor was in much rougher shape than we thought.
We found deck boards from a old patch job hidden beneath ugly “stick on tile”.
Instead of trying to ‘put lipstick on a pig’ we decided to cover it up with laminate until we can save enough money to have a professional fix the floors.
We learned that refinishing the floors was a great investment in the home.
We were able to keep much of the original charm, which was important to us.
Do you have stories about refinishing old hardwood floors?
Make sure you leave your favorite tips and resources in the comments.
So please do not forget to follow us as we continue on the #totsreno journey.
OR forget all this hard work and read Tips for a less Stressful Family Vacation!
Read these interesting articles Preparing Your House for a Showing, 10 Tips for Living in a Hotel Room with Kids, Tips for Refinishing Stairs and 5 Simple Tips for Redoing your Bathroom Floor.
These are some really great tips and well worth keeping in mind. Thanks for telling us your experience with this. It helps to learn from those who have been there done that.
Hi, what stain/finish did you use on your floors? Mine are very similar (brown paint AND wood color)
We did not stain. We chose to just cover the floor with a few coats of satin sheen polyurethane.
Thank you for sharing your experience, this is so helpful to those of us who are considering taking on such a task!
The words to hear are epic fail if you don’t do a lot of investigating first. I have been refinishing floors for 17 years and it’s no easy task. First of all the right tools for any job are necessary and shouldn’t be substituted at all costs. I’m also dust free by 98 percent which is difficult to do
I have three words for everyone call a professional
TRUE. Not all floors can be striped with sanders, you might have to do chemical stripping first then sanding. This will take days if not months to cover large areas.
Thanks for the tips! The floor really looks great! A lot of people have no idea how much work it really takes to refinish a hardwood floor. Don’t wear yourself out on your floors. Thanks for the post.
Hello
Did you have to replace any boards? Our old farmhouse is also over 100 years old and I am starting to rip up the carpet and it is scary! There is tin can lids nailed over holes.
I made the same mistake with the poly finish, didn’t stir it. ARRRGH!
Our century old home has yellow pine floors. It’s harder than most pine woods, but it’s not hardwood and it was very worn in places. I had to do all the sanding with a hand sander because the floor was so uneven. The worst place was the diningroom where the floors were splintered and had big gouges in them. When we pulled up the carpet, we found that the previous owners had leveled out the floor with plaster! I sure had fun scraping and picking that out! I filled the gouges with wood putty and painted in some grain before varnishing. That worked out surprisingly well. It was worth all the work, I love how they look.
Old houses are so much fun :). In our kitchen someone replaced the wood floors with deck board — the big 2x4s. We have it covered with laminate right now because I have no idea how to fix it lol.
Were your floors oak or pine? We are getting ready to restore (hired someone) our floors in our 1875 home and are torn as to what we want to do with sealant and color. We love the old farmhouse look and want to preserve what is there, but dont want it to look shiny and wet. We have heart pine going up the steps and heart pine that has been painted black, tan and white on the second floor. We have a uniform quartersawn white oak floor downstairs and we really dont want to stain them but would love for them to be the color of yours when they are done….any help you can provide would be awesome!!
Thanks,
To be honest I have no idea what kind of wood the floors are. I would assume pine just based on the time the house was built but that would just be a guess.
We refinished a bedroom floor. Sanded down, then the satin poly. Looked brand new at first then after ten years a beautiful patina developed.
Don’t use a belt sander if you can help it!! We ended up hating our floors until we figured out we needed an orbital sander to even everything out. In our case we could have probably gotten by with just that. Our floors weren’t in horrible shape (1960’s home) but were discolored from carpet padding and puppy puddles.
All of you recommendations are correct, especially SEEK OUT PROFESSIONAL HELP if you don’t think things are going the way they should be. Also if you want a great job don, not meaning that your ideas are bad, but trouble and bad looking floors will last awhile.
I have a problem, that one of the readers of this blog may help me with. I have an 89 year old house, and want to restore the living room and dining room. Both rooms have carpets which are stapled down, Discovering what was under the carpet amazed me ( original solid hardwood flooring . I want to redo the hardwood flooring, but the only problem is that when they had put the flooring down it was straightly nailed down and looks atrocious. Is there a way of covering the nail holes, only approximately 800 nail holes to cover ??? PLEASE any help will do, I want to get to those hardwood floors badly…
This post was perfect timing for me. We have been looking at doing something with our wood floors but did not know what.
Sharing!
Have a Great Sunday!
Diane
Thanks for all the helpful tips,.it has made me rethink doing my floors.My house is over 100 years old and have floors made of fir.Would it be done in the same method?
Ran into problems with spots on our 1940wood floors, very dark spots and carpet was on top. Once carpet up the floors had to be stained to cover up dark spots; however went on to darkso after a lot of research we found that we could use wood bleach to lighten it up but of course no one carried it and didn’t have time to order as we were already staying in hotel. Found outdoor bleach that could be used on decks and at this time what the heck and bleached floors with deck mops! The floors bleached out and I’m some places so we put a very light coat of stain to match up closer to rest of floor. We have first coat of polyurethane on floor and will lightly sand and put second coat on floor. I am hearing what all the professionals asr saying but it appears to have worked for now!
I just moved into a new home and the previous owners had pets that had scratched up and dulled down the hardwood flooring. I was going to refinish the floors, but it was very pricey for our budget. Instead, I opted to get the hardwood floors deep cleaned by a local cleaning company and this really renewed their look. I’d recommend getting your hardwood floors deep cleaned before you get them refinished because it really made a big difference!
Hey, thanks for the article. Good job. Keep it up!